[PBEM game] Entwined Destiny (Over)

[Alneyan]

I have just sent mails to the first three teams in the order (random order as decided by the die). The first team makes a single pick, the second team picks two nations, and the third one picks three nations, with the first nation not claimed by anyone else attributed to this team. The water nations are out of the game.

Sending mails to three teams at once should make nation picking a bit faster, as I will only need four rows of mails to get that part done. In the meantime, there are still a couple of items in the settings that have not been addressed as of yet. The main one is about the map that will be played; I only made a suggestion here about Theater of War (because of its layout).

[Yvelina]

Two questions:

The standard for multiplayer games is magic ressources 50%, not 45%... I do not remember playing a 45% game, unless Yarnspinners was one. Any reason for going to 45%? 50% makes winging probabilities and the payoff of additional searches easier.

Aren't we going to use the six-leaf clover map? Theater of War or something? I cannot think of a standard map that really has six equivalent corners. No one want to play 'monkey in the middle', I hope.

(Karan)




(Craddle)

[Alneyan]

I simply thought 45% was the standard in Dominions, but it is in fact 40%. No problems with having 50% magic sites. I heard nothing about the actual map before, so I was thinking Theater of War did not particulary appeal to the players. It is indeed a very nice map for such setups, and it even comes with preset starting locations.

If we use Theater of War, one small modification may be made to the map: the connection from the mainland to the south-east isle is not as deep as the five others, for no reason I can discern (I made this connection standard in another game using the same map).

Another matter is the preset forts on this map. They have a nice garrison (though nothing to write home about if memory serves), but their presence means the province itself can be taken without a fight. Without patrolling units or PD, a mere scout would take such provinces, leaving only the garrison to take care of at a later date. Would you like to keep the forts in, or should I remove them from the .map file?

[Yvelina]

I think that the forts should be removed, or those who take Caelum or a sneaky nation will have a great advantage... they will be able to bring troops to wrestle these provinces away from the scouts.

As for fixing the connections, I have not looked at them, but what you say makes sense.

Oh, about the research... what is the reasoning against standard research? Not that we would change our race pick based on the research difficulty, or anything. But we should definitely know the setting when designing a pretender. Negative magic scales in retarded games are suicide.

[Alneyan]

I have not really considered the research setting (and I will not be playing in the game, so it isn't as if I would have a say in the matter); the default setting will be applied unless most players want it to be changed. Either way, settings will be final before making the Pretenders at the latest.

Harder research could be considered because of the alliances, as not all fields of research would be really needed (namely Blood, and Conjuration/Construction could perhaps be delayed as well). I wouldn't call that a reasoning though, but simply an opinion, or one example of "host trying to figure out something to say about research setting besides a 'to be determined' comment".

And speaking of the settings, here they come:
- Map: Theater of War, with set, known starting locations. The map will be slightly modified, and the .map file will be made available.
- Independents: 6
- Research: Normal
- Site frequency: 50%
- Hall of Fame: 15 entries
- Scores are off, but there will be vague comments from the host about how the nations are faring
- Victory condition: Last team standing (or when all teams are willing to concede to a team)
- Mod: Zen Pretenders mod 2.0, available from here. The latest change lot for the mod is available here (it is currently the latest post in the thread).

[Alneyan]

I have updated the earliest post in the thread. Other than that, I am still waiting for the mails from CUnknown and TheBirthdayParty.

Incidentally, I have not heard anything from TheBirthdayParty since he signed up. So if you are interested in playing in the game, but not currently in any of the teams, you might want to let me know so that I can call on you if needed.

[alexti]

Yvelina said:
Aren't we going to use the six-leaf clover map? Theater of War or something? I cannot think of a standard map that really has six equivalent corners. No one want to play 'monkey in the middle', I hope.

Inland is a fine map for that, everybody will 'monkey in the middle'. And it's not too big either. If we only have 6 teams = 12 players, we better stay under 120-150 province map if we don't want the game to fall apart as people will get tired of micromanagement

[The Panther]

Hey, I am not playing in this game, but I just want to applaud Alneyan for hosing Dominions games for other players. It is guys like this who make the MP community a success for all players.

Also, 6 teams of 2 is a really nifty idea. It is a nice change of pace from the standard FFA games.

As for the team draft thing, reversing order in the second round is a good plan. We do this in my scratch golf league and it really evens out the playing field for all teams. The first guy to pick will get his/her best race but then the teammate has to select from the dregs of whatever is left over. A good way to balance the teams.

I wonder if a single team will get Ermor AE/SG and Pan CW? That would be a very interesting combo indeed.

As Yvelina mentioned, Theater of War seems designed exactly for this type of game with its 6 independent leafs plus the middle for everybody to fight over. No one can really complain about bad starting positions on that map.

Anyway, good luck all and I hope you guys and gals post in this thread on the game progress plus any good battles.

[YellowCactus]

The suggested order of picks reminds me of the board game "Settlers". If it works there, it'll work here.
-Yc

[Alneyan]

Heh, thanks for the kind words Panther, but I find organising games to be more fun than actually playing these days. Go figure.

Theater of War is a bigger map than I had reckoned it to be (about 270 provinces, all land). There is about 30 provinces on each isle, and one hundred on the mainland, though the latter provinces are likely to be contested. If you feel strongly about the size of the map, please say so.